Sofia Palmer

I am currently undertaking a Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine Biology at the University of Queensland. Starting in late April 2021, I volunteered with Dr Tania Kenyon and Dr Kennedy Wolfe to assist with their work on the invertebrate diversity within rubble beds within coral reefs. This involved measuring and recording the morphometrics of over 1000 individual coral rubble pieces that were collected in samples from 12 sites around the Heron Island reef. The invertebrates collected in the same samples were also recorded, with many thousands of individuals present. This, along with the percentage cover of things like algae on the pieces, is likely to influence biodiversity in rubble reefs, with implications to broader ecological functioning as reefs degrade.